Defy All The Devils

The “fascinating, hair-raising, suspenseful” account of a little boy abducted in broad daylight and the desperate manhunt to find him (The New York Times Book Review). On July 1, 1874, four-year-old Charley Ross and his older brother, Walter, were playing in front of their stately Philadelphia home when a horse-drawn carriage pulled up with two men who offered candy and fireworks if the boys would ride with them. Hours later, Walter came back, stating that they had ridden through the city until the men abandoned him in the street but kept Charley. Soon after, their father, Christian K. Ross, received a demand for $20,000 in return for his son. Ross went to the police for help—and before long, the case became a national phenomenon. A popular song pleaded for the boy’s safe return. The Philadelphia police searched every home in the city, and thousands of people falsely reported that they had seen Charley or knew his whereabouts. Meanwhile, the kidnappers’ ransom letters were becoming more threatening and bizarre. The press, eager to fan the flames of hysteria, printed wholly fabricated stories and even accused Christian Ross of orchestrating the whole thing in order to hide the fact that Charley was illegitimate. And then the men who took Charley went silent . . . This is the chilling true story of a crime that transfixed a still-growing America, the unlikely series of events that produced the case’s most tantalizing clues, and the tragic twist of fate that plunged the Ross family back into darkness and haunted them for decades to come. Originally published as Little Charley Ross.

A fascinating pop-history dive into the stories behind the incredibly impactful crimes—both infamous and little-known—that have shaped the legal system as we know it. When asked why true crime is so in vogue, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author Amber Hunt always has the same answer: it’s no hotter than it’s always been. Crimes and trials have captured American consciousness since the Salem Witch Trials in the seventeenth century. And these cases over the centuries have fundamentally changed our society and shifted our legal system, resulting in the laws we have today and setting the stage for new rights and protections. From the first recorded murder trial led by the first legal dream team, to one of the earliest uses of DNA, these cases will fascinate.

This book is exclusively devoted to demonic possession and exorcism in early modern England. It offers modernized versions of the most significant early modern texts on nine cases of demonic possession from the period 1570 to 1650, the key period in English history for demonic possession. The nine stories were all written by eyewitnesses or were derived from eyewitness reports. They involve matters of life and death, sin and sanctity, guilt and innocence, of crimes which could not be committed and punishments which could not be deserved. The nine critical introductions which accompany the stories address the different strategic intentions of those who wrote them. The modernized texts and critical introductions are placed within the context of a wide-ranging general Introduction to demonic possession in England across the period 1550 to 1700.

"The Visions of Dom Francisco de Quevedo Villegas" is a satire that taxes corruption of manners, in all sorts and degrees of people, without reflecting upon particular states or persons. It is full of sharpness and morality. Francisco Gómez de Quevedo y Santibáñez Villegas (1580-1645) was a Spanish nobleman, politician and writer of the Baroque era. Along with his lifelong rival, Luis de Góngora, Quevedo was one of the most prominent Spanish poets of the age.